{"id":23814,"date":"2019-03-29T09:45:20","date_gmt":"2019-03-29T17:45:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=23814"},"modified":"2019-04-01T05:35:25","modified_gmt":"2019-04-01T13:35:25","slug":"west-virginia-joins-net-bet-pack-conventioneers-flood-the-strip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/west-virginia-joins-net-bet-pack-conventioneers-flood-the-strip\/","title":{"rendered":"West Virginia joins ‘Net-bet pack; Conventioneers flood the Strip"},"content":{"rendered":"

And then there were five. Internet<\/strong> gambling was legalized in West Virginia<\/strong> this week, as was i-poker. Gov. Jim Justice<\/strong> (R) appears to have been opposed to the law\u2014or to giving political opponents a stick \"\"to beat him with\u2014so he sat on his hands, letting it become effective without his signature. Justice similarly hid under his desk when a sports-betting bill came his way last year. There will be five i-gaming permits and, by a remarkable coincidence, the state has five brick-and-mortar casinos. Licenses will cost $250,000 and be effective for five years, whereupon renewal will require a $100,000 levy. Suppliers will pay $10,000 apiece to be licensed.<\/p>\n

As for a product launch, don’t hold your breath: It took nine months for sports betting to come on line. A ‘Net-betting debut isn’t expected until next year. Worse still, all the casinos offering it went offline<\/a> just in time for March Madness, so there will be no sports wagering until that train wreck is sorted out.<\/p>\n

* As we said yesterday, were it not for baccarat, February would have been a good month for the Las Vegas Strip<\/strong>. For instance, visitation was up 2%, \"\"leading to an 11% increase in revenue per available room. Convention business was strong, as the National Association of Home Builders<\/strong> and the Kitchen & Bath Show<\/strong> led the way toward an overall 748,600 attendees. Room rates averaged $140\/night as occupancy ran to 88%. Thank God for conventioneers, as drive-in traffic was down, especially at the California<\/strong> border, off 6%.<\/p>\n

* “The bottom line is, of course, they overestimated the size of the gaming market that they were trying to serve.” That’s University of Texas<\/strong> casino expert Clyde Barrow<\/strong> on the wave of slot-floor reductions<\/a> \"\"sweeping upstate New York<\/strong>. Already del Lago Resort & Casino<\/strong> has been put on bankruptcy watch by Moody’s Investors Service<\/strong>. Now it wants to remove an unspecified number of slot machines in order to make room for a sports book. Already Resorts World Catskills<\/strong> has petitioned the state to reduce its slot inventory by 26% and Tioga Downs<\/strong> is taking out 50 one-armed bandits. That leaves Rivers Casino<\/strong>, the only one of the newbies to stand pat on its slot inventory. Let’s hope Empire State lawmakers remember this when casino developers bring inflated revenue projections for the Manhattan<\/strong> area before them in 2023.<\/p>\n

* Congratulations to Scientific Games<\/strong> for setting a U.S. record for one week of lottery sales. The company, vendor to the Florida Lottery<\/strong>, sold $126,250,558 in tickets in the week ending March 3. Of \"\"that amount, $23.3 million trickled down to the Educational Enhancement Trust Fund<\/strong>. The bonanza is credited to the introduction of a new game, $15 Million Gold Rush Special Edition<\/em>, which costs $30 a ticket. Buy a few of those and pretty soon we’re talking about real money.<\/p>\n

* Give Plaza Hotel<\/strong> CEO Jonathan Jossel<\/strong>\u00a0credit for always trying new things. The latest is a demolition derby, to be held this weekend at the hotel’s Core Arena<\/strong>. Finally, a Downtown<\/strong> event\u00a0that lets you vicariously vent some of your Fremont Street Experience<\/strong> frustration.<\/p>\n

* If you’re a self-excluded gambler and think you can get away with breaking your vow, forget it: The Man *will* find you. Borgata<\/strong> just forfeited $107,000<\/a> in winnings by self-excluded and underage gamblers. Its online affiliate bwin.party<\/strong> was fined an additional $81,000, for not properly vetting its players. \u201cBorgata consistently self-reports to uphold our operational integrity, as indicated by the instances of forfeited funds rather than fines,” said casino President Marcus Glover<\/strong>, deftly spinning a negative into a PR positive.<\/p>\n

Other casinos in the dock this week were Bally’s<\/strong> ($1,398), Caesars Atlantic City<\/strong> ($3,530) and Hard Rock Atlantic City<\/strong> ($1K for underage gamblers\u2014the downside of a hip brand). Two ‘Net-betting sites were also fined.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And then there were five. Internet gambling was legalized in West Virginia this week, as was i-poker. Gov. Jim Justice (R) appears to have been opposed to the law\u2014or to giving political opponents a stick to beat him with\u2014so he … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23,244,34,51,14,4,36,120,165,37,245,101,33,242,160,47,9,139],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23814"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23814"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23814\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23821,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23814\/revisions\/23821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}